Wind Erosion in Western Queensland Australia

Chapter 5 – Land Erodibility Model Developmentwhere β is a regression coefficient (-0.236) denoting the sensitivity of local dust-eventfrequencies to soil moisture content. The relationship was found to be consistently strong andstatistically significant (r 2 = 0.94; p < 0.0001) for the stations and across the sandy to claytextured soils in western Queensland. The mean wind speed associated with the events was8.29 ms -1 . The large difference to that associated with the grass cover model (18 ms -1 ) is dueto: 1) the wind speeds used in the wind tunnel analysis by Leys (1991a) being more typical ofthose associated with dust storm as opposed to local dust events; and 2) local differencesexist between wind speeds measured at the meteorological stations and the actual dust sourceareas. An implication of combining the relationships is that the skill of the model will be verysensitive to the representativeness of Equation 5.2 and may in fact underestimate erodibilityin circumstances when wind speeds are